in the 1970s The song was recorded on September 26, 1964, at Studio A of
Gold Star Studios in Los Angeles. As with his other songs, Spector started by cutting the instrumental track first, building up layers of sound to create the Wall of Sound effect. The recording was done mono so Spector could fix the sound exactly as he wanted it. The vocals by Hatfield and Medley were then recorded and the strings overdubbed. and joined in the song's crescendo by a young and then-unknown
Cher.
Reverb was applied in the recording, and more was added on the lead vocals during the mix. Right before the second verse started, Spector wanted the tempo to stay the same, but the beat to be just a little behind where they are supposed to land to give the impression of the song slowing down. The recorded song was three ticks slower and a tone and a half lower than what Mann and Weil had written. Spector, however, refused to shorten it. Following a suggestion by Larry Levine, The production of the single cost Spector around $35,000, then a considerable amount. Spector himself was deeply concerned about the reception to a song that was unusual for its time, worrying that his vision would not be understood. He canvassed a few opinions – his publisher
Don Kirshner suggested that the song should be re-titled "Bring Back That Lovin' Feelin, while New York DJ
Murray the K thought that bass line in the middle section, similar to that of a slowed-down "
La Bamba", should be the start of the song. Spector took these as criticisms and later said: "I didn't sleep for a week when that record came out. I was so sick, I got a spastic colon; I had an ulcer."
Reception Andrew Loog Oldham, who was then the manager of
the Rolling Stones and a fan and friend of Spector, chanced upon Spector listening to a test pressing of the song that had just been delivered. Loog Oldham later wrote, "The room was filled with this amazing sound, I had no idea what it was, but it was the most incredible thing I'd ever heard." He added, "I'd never heard a recorded track so emotionally giving or empowering." Later, when
Cilla Black recorded a rival version of the same song and it was racing up the British charts ahead of The Righteous Brothers' version, Loog Oldham was appalled, and took it upon himself to run a full-page ad in
Melody Maker: In other ads, Loog Oldham also coined a new term to describe the song, "Phil Spector's
Wall of Sound", which Spector later registered as a trademark.
Mick Brown, author of a biography of Spector,
Tearing Down the Wall of Sound, considered the song to be "Spector's defining moment" and his "most Wagnerian production yet – a funeral march to departed love". and
Vanity Fair described the song as "the most erotic duet between men on record". However, when it was first presented on the BBC television
panel show Juke Box Jury in January 1965 upon its release in the UK, it was voted a miss by all four of its panelists, with one juror echoing Barry Mann's concerns by questioning if it was played at the right speed. There were initially reservations about the song from the radio industry; a common complaint was that it was too long, and others also questioned the speed of the song, and thought that the singer "keeps yelling". In Britain,
Sam Costa, a DJ on the
BBC Light Programme, said that The Righteous Brothers' record was a dirge, adding, "I wouldn't even play it in my toilet." Over the subsequent decades, he recorded numerous unreleased renditions of "You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin. One of them, recorded during the sessions for the 1977 album
The Beach Boys Love You, was released on the 2013 compilation
Made in California. Spector himself later rated the song as the pinnacle of his achievement at Philles Records.
Commercial success "You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin debuted on the American national chart on December 12, 1964. It topped the
Billboard Hot 100 on February 6, 1965, and remained there for another week; its 16-week run on the Hot 100 was unusually lengthy at that time. And it was the longest recording to top the chart up to that time. In addition, the single crossed over to the R&B charts, peaking at No. 2.
Billboard ranked the record as the
No. 5 single of 1965. The single was released in the UK in January 1965, debuting at No. 35 in the chart dated January 20, 1965. In its fourth week it reached number one, where it remained for two weeks, replaced by
the Kinks' "
Tired of Waiting for You". It would become the only single to ever enter the UK Top Ten three times, being re-released in 1969 (No. 10), and again in 1990 (No. 3). The 1990 re-release was issued as a
double A-sided single with "
Ebb Tide" and was a follow-up to the re-release of "
Unchained Melody", which had hit number one as a result of being featured in the blockbuster film
Ghost. "You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin also reached No. 42 after a 1977 re-release and in 1988 reached No. 87. and again in December 1990, following its reissue as a double A-sided single with "Ebb Tide", when it climbed to No. 2 again. The original Righteous Brothers recording remains the only version of the song to chart in Ireland. In the Netherlands "You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin reached No. 8 in March 1965, with three versions ranked together as one entry: those of the Righteous Brothers, Cilla Black (a UK No. 2) and Dutch singer .
Accolades In 1965, the Righteous Brothers recording of "You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin was nominated in the Best Rock and Roll Recording category at the
7th Annual Grammy Awards. It was also awarded Best Pop Single To Date 1965 in the
Billboard Disc Jockey Poll. In 1998, the original 1964 recording of the song on the Philles label was inducted into the
Grammy Hall of Fame. In 2001, this recording was ranked at No. 9 in the list of
Songs of the Century released by the
Recording Industry Association of America and the
National Endowment for the Arts. In 2004, the same recording was ranked at No. 34 by
Rolling Stone magazine in their list of the
500 Greatest Songs of All Time. In 2005, "You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin was awarded the
Songwriters Hall of Fame's Towering Song Award presented to "the creators of an individual song that has influenced the culture in a unique way over many years". In 2015, the
National Recording Registry of the
Library of Congress, which each year selects from 130 years of sound recordings for special recognition and preservation, chose the Righteous Brothers rendition as one of the 25 recordings that have "cultural, artistic and/or historical significance to American society and the nation's audio legacy".
Chart performance Weekly charts Year-end charts Certifications ==Cilla Black version==